I Can't Believe I Missed Earth Day--Again!

Has another one come and gone?  Like a drunken, inattentive husband, I completely missed this very special day for our Gaia Mother.   Here's a belated card; please remember it is the thought that counts!  !8 Spectacularly Wrong Prophesies about the Earth

Better Weather Through Global Warming!

Most Americans are benefiting from climate change, says this study, because their winters are milder and their summers, well, not much hotter.  See the news report here:  Climate Change Brings Nicer Winters

But get this logic: the researchers say, don't get used to this.  Because, you see, the lack of a problem now means that people won't complain about climate change, and then nothing will be done about it!

Warmer weather is way better.  Longer growing seasons, less people dying in the cold.  I, for one, welcome the new climate.

The Catholic Church Rejects Socialism

But you'd never know it from the recent Vatican council event commemorating the 25th anniversary of Centesimus Annus,  John Paul II great encyclical on the market economy and freedom. For some reason, the conference organizers decided to invite socialist hacks like Bernie Sanders, Evo Morales, and Rafael Correa.  The last two are presidents of Bolivia and Ecuador, those demi-paradises of prosperity and care for the poor.   Robert Royal has an excellent commentary on the conference here:  Vatican Charmed by Democratic Socialism 

Which leads me to the inevitable question: what is Pope Francis thinking?   At a certain point, Catholic conservatives are going to have to stop making excuses for some of his less-than-helpful ideas.  His encyclical on the environment, Laudato Si, struck me as an analytic mess and probably should be seen as a piece with this conference.  



JP II rebuking the Marxist priest Ernesto Cardenal in Managua.  Those were different times.

Time for Common Sense About ISIS

The Islamic State is a manageable threat that's on the wane.  See if you agree:  Common Sense about ISIS

Merle Haggard, the Last American Bard

Here's a great tribute to Haggard, who just died.  I love "Momma Tried."  Many don't understand that "Okie from Muskogee" was meant to be ironic.

Merle Haggard (1937-2016): Brilliance Born in a Boxcar

Merle Haggard was a musical pioneer, foreshadowing outlaw country and country rock.

By 

JIM FUSILLI

April 6, 2016 7:09 p.m. ET

10 COMMENTS

The songs of Merle Haggard, a bard of the working man, had their roots in country, but they inspired musicians in other genres of American music as well. As a linchpin of the so-called Bakersfield sound, which added an earthy edge to the kind of country coming from Nashville, Tenn., Mr. Haggard foreshadowed outlaw country and country rock, and for more than 50 years composed, sang with a rich, penetrating baritone and played songs that blended a firsthand knowledge of life’s trials and travails with a fervent hope for better times ahead. He died on April 6, his 79th birthday.

ENLARGE

Merle Haggard in 2014. PHOTO: CHRIS FELVER/GETTY IMAGES

As a boy, Mr. Haggard began to compile trying experiences that would serve him well as a songwriter. Merle Ronald Haggard was born in a converted boxcar in Oildale, Calif., just outside of Bakersfield. After his father died suddenly while Merle was still a child, Mr. Haggard began to teach himself guitar and to commit crimes that started off petty but escalated in their severity.

A promising musician with a voice influenced by honky tonk’s Lefty Frizzell, by 1956 Haggard was playing clubs and roadhouses. But a robbery led to confinement in San Quentin Prison. After witnessing a Johnny Cash concert at the fabled penitentiary, Mr. Haggard joined a country group in prison and earned his high-school equivalency diploma.

Mr. Haggard signed on with Wynn Stewart’s band as a bassist and, at the same time, began a solo career. When his third single, “(My Friends Are Gonna Be) Strangers,” landed high on the Country & Western charts in 1964, he formed a band, the Strangers, featuring a plucky electric guitar played by Roy Nichols.His cover of “The Fugitive,” released in 1966, became the first of his almost 40 No. 1 country hits, which included his compositions “Mama Tried,” “Workin’ Man Blues,” “Sing Me Back Home” and “If We Make It Through December.” Other Haggard compositions that became standards include “The Bottle Let Me Down” and “Today I Started Loving You Again,” written with his wife Bonnie Owens.

In 1969, Mr. Haggard courted controversy with his song “Okie From Muskogee,” in which he disparages hippies and promotes traditional values. Embraced by Middle America, the song was honored by the Country Music Association, as was the album of the same name. Though it defined Mr. Haggard, perhaps too narrowly, he also composed a song that supported interracial love, “Irma Jackson,” which he released in ’72. It was not as well-received as “Okie From Muskogee.”

By then, Mr. Haggard’s songs had crossed over into the rock-and-pop world. Joan Baez,the Byrds, the Grateful Dead, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and even Dean Martin covered his songs. But Mr. Haggard remained committed to the country side of the ledger, recording a 1970 tribute to Bob Wills and western swing in which Mr. Haggard revealed his skills as a fiddle player. In the 1970s, he had 16 No. 1 hit singles on the country charts.

Mr. Haggard struggled with substance abuse and financial setbacks in the late ’80s and into the ’90s, though his reputation as a songwriter remained stellar as covers of his songs by contemporary singers charted and appeared in films. In 2005, he released “America First,” a song that lamented the state of the country’s infrastructure while the government was engaged in nation-building elsewhere. He issued his final solo album, “Working in Tennessee,” in 2011, and four years later he and Willie Nelson scored a No. 1 album with “Django and Jimmie,” a tribute to Django Reinhardt and Jimmie Rodgers.The 78-year-old Mr. Haggard was in fine voice, his characteristic blend of defiance and tenderness golden in the lines he sang.

Mr. Haggard was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1977 and the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1994. He received a Kennedy Center Honor in 2010 for his contributions to American culture. When his journey from a boxcar and a prison cell to the heights of popular music ended with his death, Mr. Haggard was firmly established as an extraordinary composer and artist who spoke plainly from the heart to those who felt the power of his convictions.

Mr. Fusilli is the Journal’s rock and pop music critic. Email him at jfusilli@wsj.com and follow him on Twitter @wsjrock.

Two Conservatives Weigh In For Trump

Edward Luttwak here Suffering from Trumpfobia? Get Over It reminds us that in 1980 the press regularly accused Reagan of being so crazy he would get us into a nuclear war.  Eamonn Fingleton here Rubio a Disgrace praises Trump for his willingness to expose how East Asia still puts considerable barriers on our exports.  

He is right that Rubio went beyond Trump in taking the low road.  I was thinking of voting for him at one point but he turned me off.

Both writers see Trump as willing to challenge the conventional wisdom that somehow free trade has been a big benefit for America.  In fact, our main trading partners China and Japan don't practice it. 

Fingleton constantly points out how American infrastructure is going to seed. It is hard to disagree with him when one sees the sorry state of our airports and roads.  I keep reading in the American press about Japan's doldrums economy.  I visited Tokyo in 2014--it was like a gleaming Futurama. Everything new. 

Many parts of the US aren't prospering at all; the Midwest is being hollowed out.  Fracking has made some areas prosperous again--the start of an American industrial renaissance--but the Democrats want to kill it for good. 

How free trade and immigration, both of which put downward pressure on American wages, are benefiting the country should be items for national discussion.  

The Great Wall of Mexico

Trump has been doubling down on his call for a wall--now fifteen feet high--to protect the US from illegal aliens.  He also has demanded the Mexicans pay for it. 

As you know from reading this blog, our problem with illegal entry is actually improving.  And in the case of Mexicans themselves, more might be heading back to Mexico than are coming in. 

Personally, I doubt Trump is serious about his great wall idea.  This is typical rhetoric for him.  He starts out with an extreme position, and like the deal maker he is, he walks back to something more acceptable. 

Such a wall would be impossible, of course, and will never happen. We have 45 official points of entry on our southern border with Mexico.  These range from big bridges and highways to, in one case, a hand-pulled ferry in Los Ebanos, Texas. (I've seen it.  This must be one of the poorest communities in the US.)   Improving security at these entry points is an ongoing matter.  Border security actually extends miles inland.  

Hardly perfect, but the border has been more of a security priority since 9/11.

Ex-Mexican presidents took the bait and reacted predictably to Trump's proclamations, likening him to Hitler. Certainly Trump has been most discourteous.  Also it isn't fun to be reminded by your northern neighbor that millions of Mexicans have had to flee north just to make an adequate living. 

The ferry at Los Ebanos, TX